Guinness Goes Out for ‘The Largest St. Patrick’s Day Celebration’

Recently, I was contacted by a public relations firm that represents Guinness. The iconic stout brand is holding a promotion in conjunction with St. Patrick’s Day this year. The idea is to set a record for the largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration. In this case, the celebration would be virtual: Guinness is asking people to sign a pledge on its website, promising to drink a Guinness on St. Paddy’s Day this year. If successful Guinness will win a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records (which, incidentally, used to be affiliated with the beer brand but no longer is).

After you click through the age-verification screen, you’ll be invited to “Join the Party.” Click that link.

Next, you can choose to enter your name and zip code, or log in with your Facebook account. I would love it if you entered your name and zip; if you use Facebook, you won’t be able to pledge.

I would also love it if you entered the word DASH when prompted for an optional code.

Finally, you will then — and I’m sorry for this — have to jump through a Captcha hoop.

What’s in it for you? In addition to enjoying a nice frothy draught of Guinness, you can enter to win a trip to Dublin.

What’s in it for me? I won’t lie to you: I get a little money for every pledge that uses my promo code, and there’s a chance I’ll also win a trip to Dublin. Why would I sell myself like this? Simple: I honestly really enjoy Guinness. It’s a brand I support, have spent my own money on enjoying, have bought for other people, and plan to enjoy again soon. I wouldn’t do this for Coors or Corona.

Also, this is a good time to announce that I’m hoping to broaden the focus of this blog in 2012. The bulk of my spirits and cocktail writing is over at Serious Eats these days, but I want to keep this blog alive. That means writing about beverages other than hard booze and fast cocktails. So, I’m launching that with a post about Guinness. Why not?

Guinness has asked me to remind you, of course, that its renowned stout is a beverage that is best enjoyed responsibly. Please do not overindulge; we’ve all had stout hangovers and man, they’re no fun. Please do not drink and drive or operate heavy machinery. Please think twice before trying that line again; that joke never works, so don’t expect it work this time either. Please don’t attempt to dye your Guinness bright green, or for that matter your hair. Leave the funny hats and fake beards at home, or better yet, save your money and buy your buddies a round. When stumbling through the streets of Boston, watch out for cobblestones. Face-planting yourself in the middle of Quincy Market is never as much fun as you think it’ll be.

UPDATE: As noted in the comments, the pledge only works if you’re in the United States. Guinness is running this promotion internationally, but other jurisdictions have other ways to pledge, and I don’t know how those work.

Oh, oops, sorry Chris. Guinness is working with various companies to make this as close to a world-wide thing as possible, but I think each country has its own rules and own ways to play. Thanks for trying, though!